WE’VE ALL HEARD of Custer’s Last Stand. It was June 25, 1876 when the flamboyant U.S. Army cavalry commander foolishly attacked a large Indian village along the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory.
Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors quickly gained the upper hand and drove Custer and his troopers up the slopes of what is now called Last Stand Hill, there to eventually surround and slaughter 270 men of 7th Cavalry, including the general himself.
But Little Big Horn wasn’t the only time Custer found himself with enemies on all sides and fighting for his very life. It also happened more than a decade earlier in an engagement during the U.S. Civil War – on June 11, 1864, to be precise.
At the time, Custer was a 24-year-old brigadier commanding a full brigade of Michigan cavalry. His outfit was part of a Union force sent to rescue Ulysses Grant’s Army of the Potomac from a dire situation at Cold Harbor, Virginia.
Read Full Article »